If you’re a non-techie who has been left to look after the IT department of your workplace, you may be wondering exactly how your IT provider stacks up in comparison to the industry standards of others in the country.

The following review will give you a break down of the industry standards across four categories: client satisfaction, service deliverability, IT spend and managed services cost.

1. Client Satisfaction

In August 2015, Client Heartbeat surveyed the clients of Australian IT providers to determine how happy they were with their IT provider. The survey asked clients to rate their IT provider on a scale of 1 to 10 across 5 areas: promptness, accuracy, partnership, advice and overall performance.

2. Service Deliverability

Pink Elephant (the company who initiated this survey) collects, analyses and presents IT management metrics benchmarks. Between 2010 and 2012 a survey was taken by IT managers across the globe to measure the standards for incident, problem and change-management metrics.

Here are some of the standout findings:

Incident management

The report found that the number of incidents an organisation experiences is influenced by the organisation’s size, number of users and the number of years that the company has had an incident management practice in place. The numbers below represent an average of the total incidents per month during the survey period unless otherwise indicated.

Requests for change with no issues: 87%
Requests for change / right the first time: 90%

Among the several interesting metrics is an average 90% Change Executed Right First Time (no rollback or cancelation, and as scheduled). This appears to indicate that 10% of all Changes fail in at least 1 of the 3 ways, which is quite a disappointing benchmark.

3. IT Spend

According to research compiled by software security company Trend Micro, Australian small businesses spend an average of $52,100 per year on IT related expenses.

In the last year, small businesses with between five and 25 employees spent an average of $25,200 per year, while businesses with between 26 and 50 staff spent $20,600 and businesses with 51 to 100 employees spent, on average, $77,300 on IT.

The survey of 300 businesses found the way in which IT was managed across a business depended heavily on the size of the business, with smaller businesses more likely to manage IT simply on an ad hoc basis, and those with more employees more likely to have dedicated IT support.

Nearly one quarter of businesses surveyed said they had external technology consultants and channel partners provide their IT support, a figure much larger than other countries around the world.

Mark Sinclair, head of small and medium business at Trend Micro, said if small business owners have to manage IT themselves it can lead to inefficiencies and increased security incidents.

As a rule of thumb, if you’re spending less than 5% on IT, you should consider how important it is to your organisation’s success and how you can increase spending to at least 5% to take advantage of tools and services that will help you operate more efficiently.

4. Managed Services Cost

Kaseya surveyed 700 managed IT service providers to determine a few industry standards for pricing. Here’s what they found (in AUD):

Average hourly rate: $92 (level 1), $120 (level 2), $171 (level 3)
Average desktop support and maintenance charge: $51-65
Average server support and maintenance charge: $160-195
Average billing fee per user: 39% charge, between $65-130 per user
Average size of managed service contract: between $1300-6500

Conclusion

These industry standards should be referred when reviewing your current IT provider. Consider, are they meeting your business needs at a reasonable cost?

If you would like to speak with us about how we can effectively and efficiently manage your businesses IT, contact the eStorm office today.

Technology is advancing at a rapid rate, which can place a strain on your business to keep up and compete against other companies already harnessing the benefits of rapid IT evolution. Businesses are forced to become more reliant on their IT systems, so companies looking to outsource their IT frequently approach us. If you’re considering outsourcing your IT we have outlined some of the benefits below:

REDUCED COSTS

Reducing costs is the main reason why companies choose to outsource their IT needs; savings can be seen with both labour and hardware. It is often cheaper to outsource instead of hiring your own IT administrator. With fixed termed contracts you can budget your IT expenditure, saving much-needed dollars over the long term.

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

Outsourcing your IT gives you access to resources usually reserved for much larger multi-national organisations. For often less than the cost of a single staff member, you can have the support, expertise, experience and efficiency of a large IT support team.

INCREASED EFFICIENCY

IT administration is usually not your core competency and therefore not the most effective use of your time. It is however the core focus of the IT company you outsource from. Outsourcing allows you to have a complete IT team at your fingertips, with a number of technicians holding skills and knowledge across a wide range of areas. This allows you to focus on growing your business, which is what you do best.

FUTURE PROOF YOUR IT

By being immersed in everything IT; the company you outsource from invests in research and development to find and test new technologies that can be utilised in your work place. This means that when a project is proposed, it will be up to date with the latest and greatest technology available. This ensures there are no shortfalls when it comes to your IT infrastructure. The projects will be managed from conception to completion.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND RELIABILITY

Outsourcing your IT department means that you have 24/7 IT support. You no longer have to worry about members of your IT administration being away or leaving your business. It is the responsibility of the company you outsource from to ensure they have technicians ready to help as and when you need it. They are accountable for the work they undertake, so your IT investment is protected.

VENDOR PARTNERSHIPS

IT companies often partner with leading vendors to ensure the best pricing and support for both hardware and software. Our partners at eStorm include HP, Microsoft, Apple, VMWare, and Amazon. This diverse group of partners allows us to select the most appropriate hardware and software for your business.

If you are thinking about outsourcing your IT, contact the eStorm office today to find out about how we can help you.